Saints, Angels, & Vorlons
by Anla'shok Ivanova
Summary: Delenn reflects upon secrets, the Vorlons, and the fate of Anna Sheridan, sometime between "Walkabout" and "Shadow Dancing".


Disclaimer: Babylon 5 and its characters don't belong to me. The characters   
mentioned all belong to J. Michael Straczynski, and my amateur efforts probably   
can't do justice to his work. Delenn, Kosh the second, Jeffrey Sinclair, the   
Shadow-tinged persona who once was Anna Sheridan, and anybody else I might have   
mentioned here, will be returned unharmed, though I can't say the same for my   
sanity after being woken up by these characters muttering in my ear at around   
2AM...   
  
Author's note: My Kosh quotes are probably just a bit inaccurate, and my Sinclair   
'quotes' are figments of my imagination. This is slightly on the AU side... a   
little bit of a "what if...?". This story takes place sometime between "Walkabout"   
and "Shadow Dancing".  
  
"Saints, Angels, & Vorlons"  
by Christine Anderson  
  
Before the advent of the Shadow War, I do not think any of us knew that gods could   
die. We found, with great and terrible sadness, that we were wrong. We were wrong.   
I know, of course, that the Vorlons were not gods. But in his own way Kosh was the   
wisest of us, though it wasn't his way, nor the way of his people, to impart that   
wisdom in words that we could readily understand. We lost much when we lost him to   
the Shadows.   
  
I think that the others do not know what I do, that Kosh knew what the price would   
be for helping us, for doing as John asked. John...John knows, but the others do   
not, and better that way, I think. It had to be done; sacrifices had to be made,   
and Kosh knew that.  
  
John blames himself for the death of Kosh. I think that he, like many of the   
others, did not realize what Kosh /meant/, what he was to all of us and to this   
place, until he was gone.   
  
The guilt about this place is, has always been, tangible. You can walk down any   
corridor or into any room and wrap yourself up in it. You can do that until you   
feel nothing else at all. And I wish very much that I could do that, but I cannot.   
I am more Grey now than ever I was before, and as ever, the burdens of that are   
heavy indeed.   
  
I want to tell them everything, all of it down to the very last thing, but I am   
afraid. It is too soon. The Shadows move openly now, but it is too soon, and if   
they turn their eyes to us before we are ready, while the alliances are still   
fragile enough to break at the slightest touch... I know the cost of speaking up.   
But for keeping silent, I do not know yet what the price of that will be. It does   
not matter, for it must be this way, but I do wonder.  
  
To myself at least I can admit this much- that a great deal of the guilt that   
haunts Babylon 5 is mine. I feel as if I am lying to all of them, and to John   
especially I wish that I could tell the truth. I cannot, however. If he knew what I   
knew...  
  
Secrets. They have never been the way of my people, and now they are nearly all I   
know. Kosh knew things he did not choose to share with me, and many of those died   
with him. And there was a secret between he and Sheridan, something... I do not   
know what it is or was, I only know that there are things I know none other but   
John Sheridan would do. For the most part this is a good thing, and much needed   
now; without his strength and force of will, we might not have come so far, and   
yet... I see a deep and terrible something in his eyes, and it is not just the   
secrets we share, we of the war council, it is not simply these horrible secrets   
none of us wanted but that which we all must bear now, for better or worse.   
  
As there are things I am keeping from him and the others, so too is there something   
which he is keeping from me, from us. And this troubles me, has troubled me since   
Sheridan came to know of the threat the Shadows posed to all of us. Something   
happened that day, something I do not yet know. Something /changed/, something he   
and Kosh were aware of, but somehow I was not. It is only fair, I suppose, that as   
I keep things from them, so too were things kept from me, but I cannot rid myself   
of the feeling that this is something I need to know.  
  
And as to what it is I have not told him...there are many things, but there is the   
possibility of a dark and terrible truth that I would keep from him at /any/ cost.   
Knowing it would serve no purpose, but it pains me not to tell him. I love him. I   
/want/ to tell him, but I must not.  
  
"Understanding," Kosh once said, "is a three edged-sword. Their side, your side,   
and the truth." And this is something it would cut him very deeply if he were to   
understand.  
  
But the name, the face in the photographs, these things haunt my dreams, and I wish   
there were someone I dared confide in. Sinclair, my dearest old friend, is gone,   
and he is, I think, the only one whom I might entrust these words to. Certainly no   
one here...Not Lennier, and certainly not John.  
  
All these years, and it is still too soon. I know that whenever her name passes his   
lips; it is a wound not yet healed, a wound that may /never/ heal if he knows what   
might be so...   
  
/She would not serve!/ I scream in my mind, to anyone, anything, who will hear it   
and care. /Not the one he loved, not her.../  
  
/You know the Shadows,/ a voice in the darkness of my quarters seems to whisper   
back, /you know what they are, what they are capable of./  
  
/Those who would not serve were killed,/ I thought, willing it to be so.  
  
And I am reminded then of something Sinclair said to me once, what seems so long   
ago, "There is death and death again, old friend."  
  
Suddenly, with a horrible and certain clarity, I understand.  
  
"/No/!"  
  
Almost before I knew I was moving, I was aware of the door sliding closed behind   
me, of stepping out into the corridor, finding it deserted before me, the lights   
dimmed for station night. Robes swirling around me, I turned and made for the tube.  
  
I do not know that Vorlons ever sleep. Certainly each time I have sought out Kosh,   
the new or the old, he has been there, somehow seeming to be waiting.  
  
"This should not be," I said. One does not bother with greetings to the Vorlon   
ambassador.  
  
"The avalanche has begun; it is too late for the pebbles to vote."  
  
"Tell me what they have done to her." No answer. "Kosh, I must know! Is she dead?   
Does she live?"  
  
For a time nothing, then, "Yes."  
  
"I do not-"  
  
"Understanding is not required, only obedience."  
  
"What obedience? What would you have me do?"  
  
He turned away, and I, thinking I must be mad, reached out for him. "Kosh-"  
  
"Go." And I felt myself pushed back, struck as if by some invisible hand.  
  
I staggered out into the corridor beyond, hands clutching at my head.  
  
"Ambassador?"  
  
I turned. "Lyta."  
  
"Are you alright?"  
  
"I do not think any of us are alright, or will be for some time yet," I replied.   
  
"He..." She paused. "The new Vorlon Ambassador, he's...different. Not like our   
Kosh."  
  
"No," I agreed, "and yet, in some ways, quite similar."  
  
"Did he hurt you?" Lyta asked. "I can help you back to your quarters if you would   
like-"  
  
"No, thank you," I said.  
  
I returned to my quarters alone, and there, unable to sleep, lit a single candle   
and sat before its flame. "Valen help me," I whispered. "Old friend, the darkness   
comes, and there is nothing I can do to stop it. /She/ will come, and she will not   
be what she was."  
  
"We never are, are we?" Jeffrey Sinclair's voice asked from everywhere, and from   
nowhere. Then, "There is death, and death again."  
  
"Yes," I whispered.  
  
"Who?" he asked.  
  
"Anna Sheridan," I said, and I wept then, for the woman who was once Anna, for   
John, for the pain in his eyes which I knew would only grow. For the million things   
it seemed that I could not stop.  
  
No, the Vorlons are not gods, and nor are we saints or angels, as the humans say,   
though we have tried to be these things. We are only what we are, and we face these   
things alone, as it seems we must. In the end we are all alone, alone in our   
hearts, in our dreams and our fears and our nightmares.  
  
And I sometimes think, that by trying so hard to avoid destiny, all we are ever   
able to do is bring it that much closer. If we were ever to play those roles, we   
forgot long ago, if ever we knew, that along with saints and angels there must be   
their opposites- those forsaken into darkness. It seems that what will be, will be,   
no matter what is done or not done by us. And we, we are not nearly wise enough to   
fulfill those roles of saints or angels.  



End file.
